中华民族是有着5000多年辉煌灿烂文明史的伟大民族。在人类历史长河中，中国综合国力曾长期居世界前列。但到清朝（1636－1911年）的中后期，特别是1840年鸦片战争之后，由于西方列强对中国的侵略日甚一日，由于统治者的腐败无能，中国的发展开始陷入停滞，逐渐成为半殖民地半封建社会，人民惨遭压迫奴役，陷入深重苦难之中。

　　从1840年开始，列强通过对中国的多次侵略战争和其他方法，与中国政府签订了数以百计的不平等条约、章程、专条，强迫中国割地、赔款，攫取种种特权，构建起殖民、掠夺中国的系统性结构。列强入侵及其殖民政策，成为加在中国人民身上的沉重枷锁，中国人民的尊严和生存权利遭到严重践踏。

　　国家的不幸就是人民的不幸。在帝国主义、封建主义、官僚资本主义压迫之下，饥饿、贫穷、落后、挨打，是近代中国人权状况的真实写照。

　　近代中国人民遭遇的生存危机是全方位的。在经济上，中国的农业生产力落后，土地兼并加之苛捐杂税，自然灾害加之战乱破坏，导致大量农民破产沦为雇农甚至流民；工商业虽有一定发展，但规模小、产量低、结构失衡，并且受到外国资本和国内官僚资本的操控，难以为国计民生提供有力支持。经济衰败、民生凋敝，人民在生存线苦苦挣扎。据估算，当时全国有80%的人长期处于饥饿、半饥饿状态，几乎每年都有几万乃至几十万人因饥饿而死。

　　除了物质上的匮乏，中国人民还面临病疫的折磨和精神上的贫瘠。当时的中国疫病横行，鼠疫、天花、霍乱等传染病肆虐，几乎无年不疫、无省不疫，加之医疗条件差，民众健康状况十分恶劣，旧中国人均寿命仅有35岁。新中国成立时，全国5.4亿人口中，文盲率高达80%，小学实际入学率不到20%，高等教育在校生仅有11.7万人。对于当时中国人民的悲惨遭遇，毛泽东曾指出，“中国人民的贫困和不自由的程度，是世界所少见的”。中国人民的生存权都无法得到保障，更遑论其他基本权利。

【参考译文】
 

The Chinese nation is a great nation boasting a civilization spanning five millennia. China once led the world in composite national strength over a long period of time. But beginning in the middle and latter half of the Qing Dynasty (1636-1911), and especially after the Opium War in 1840, China plunged into stagnation due to a corrupt, incompetent government and ever growing Western aggression. It was eventually reduced to a semi-colonial, semi-feudal state where the people were enslaved and suffered immeasurably.

Beginning in 1840, the Western imperialist powers, through war and other aggressive means, forced the Chinese government into hundreds of unequal treaties, regulations and conventions, grabbing territory, demanding reparations and privileges, and engaging in a process of colonization and plunder throughout China. Western invasion and colonization shackled the Chinese people, trampling on their dignity and putting their very lives in jeopardy.

It was a tragedy for the country and the people. Oppressed by imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism, the Chinese people suffered from hunger and poverty and the nation from backwardness and subjugation.

The subsistence crisis raged in all directions. The economy was in a shambles. Low agricultural productivity, land annexation, harsh taxes and levies, natural disasters, and frequent wars turned large numbers of small farmers and peasants into farm laborers for hire or homeless poor. Industry and commerce developed to a certain extent, but was small in scale, low in productivity and unbalanced in structure. Manipulated by foreign and domestic bureaucrat capital, it was impossible to sustain the nation or the people. Under a shattered economy, the people were destitute and struggled to survive. It is estimated that 80 percent of the population was constantly haunted by dire hunger or inadequate food supply, and that tens or even hundreds of thousands of people starved to death every year.

China was also tortured by diseases and hindered by the lack of education among its people. Epidemics such as plague, smallpox and cholera swept across the country and recurred every year, taking a heavy toll on the populace due to the lack of health services. The average life expectancy in old China was only 35 years. When the PRC was founded in 1949, 80 percent of the 540 million population were illiterate, less than 20 percent of school-age children were in elementary schools, and there were only 117,000 students receiving higher education. Commenting on the miseries of the people, Mao Zedong said, “The poverty and lack of freedom among the Chinese people are on a scale seldom found.” With the people struggling for survival, it was impossible to talk about any other rights.